Ceiling Fan - Types of Ceiling Fans

Types of Ceiling Fans

Many styles of ceiling fans have been developed over the years in response to several different factors such as growing energy-consumption consciousness and changes in decorating styles. The advent and evolution of electronic technology has also played a major role in ceiling fan development. Following is a list of major ceiling fan styles and their defining characteristics:

• Cast-iron ceiling fans. Cast-iron ceiling fans account for almost all ceiling fans made from their invention in 1882 through the 1950s. A cast-iron housing encases a very heavy-duty oil-bath motor, usually of the shaded-pole variety. These fans must be oiled periodically, usually once or twice per year, since they use an oil-bath system for lubrication. Because these fans are so sturdily built, and due to their utter lack of electronic components, it is not uncommon to see cast-iron fans aged eighty years or more running strong and still in use today.
  • The Hunter 'Original' (manufactured by the Hunter Fan Co., formerly a division of Robbins & Myers, Inc.) is an example of a cast-iron ceiling fan. It has enjoyed the longest production run of any fan in history, dating from 1906 to the present (it is still being manufactured as the "Classic Original", with several spin-off models). The Original employed a shaded-pole motor from its inception until the late 1980s, at which point it was changed to a permanent split-capacitor motor. Though the fan's physical appearance remained unchanged, the motor was further downgraded in 2002 when production was shipped overseas; the motor, though still oil-lubricated, was switched to a "skeletal" design, as discussed below.

• Stack-motor ceiling fans. In the late 1970s, due to rising energy costs prompted by the energy crisis, Emerson invented a new style of electric motor designed specifically for ceiling fans, the "stack" motor. This powerful, energy-efficient motor aided in the comeback of ceiling fans in America, since it was far less expensive to operate than air conditioning. With this design (which consists of a basic stator and squirrel-cage rotor), the fan's blades mount to a central hub, known as a flywheel. The flywheel can be made of either metal or reinforced rubber, and can be mounted either flush with the fan's motor housing (concealed) or prominently below the fan's motor housing (known as a "dropped flywheel"). Many manufacturers used and/or developed their own stack motors, including (but not limited to) Casablanca, Emerson, FASCO, Hunter, and NuTone. Some manufacturers trademarked their personal incarnation of this motor: for example, Emerson came out with the "K-55" and "K-63" motors, and Casablanca with the "XLP-2000". One of the earliest stack-motor fans was the Emerson "Heat Fan", aka the "Universal" or "Blender Fan", a utilitarian fan with a dropped flywheel and blades made of fiberglass or plastic. This fan was produced from 1976 through 1983 and, while targeted at commercial settings, also found great success in residential settings. Another stack-motor fan; one without the dropped flywheel; is the Casablanca "Delta" (3-speed model as compared to the "Zephyr" which is a variable-speed model) pictured at the beginning of this article. While this motor is not nearly as widely used as in the 1970s and 1980s, it can still be found in certain high-end Casablanca and Emerson fans.

One disadvantage of this type of fan is that the flywheel, if it is made from rubber, will dry out and crack over time and eventually break; this is usually not dangerous, but it renders the fan inoperable until the flywheel is replaced.

• Direct-drive ceiling fans employ a motor with a stationary inner core with a shell that revolves around it (commonly called a "spinner" or "pancake" motor); the blades attach to this shell. Direct-drive motors are the least expensive motors to produce, and on the whole are the most prone to failure and noise generation. While the very first motors of this type (first used in the 1960s) were relatively heavy-duty, the quality of these motors has dropped significantly in recent years. This type of motor has become the standard for today's fans; it has been (and is) used in all Hampton Bay and Harbor Breeze ceiling fans, and has become commonly used by all other brands.
  • Spinner fans employ a direct-drive motor and do not have a stationary decorative cover (motor housing). This accounts for most industrial-style fans (though such fans sometimes have more moderate-quality motors), and some inexpensive residential-style fans (particularly those made overseas).
  • Spinner-motor fans, sometimes incorrectly referred to as "spinners", employ a direct-drive (spinner) motor and do have a stationary decorative cover (motor housing). "Spinner-motor" fans account for nearly all fans manufactured from the late 1980s to the present, including nearly all fans made overseas.

• Skeletal motors, which are a high-quality subset of direct-drive motors, can be found on some nicer fans. Examples of skeletal motors include Hunter's "AirMax" motor, Casablanca's "XTR200" motor, and the motors made by Lasko for use in their ceiling fans. Skeletal motors differ from regular direct-drive motors in that:
  • They have an open ("skeletal") design, which allows for far better ventilation and therefore a longer lifespan. This is in comparison to a regular direct-drive motor's design, in which the motor's inner workings are completely enclosed within a tight metal shell which may or may not have openings for ventilation; when openings are present, they are almost always small to the point of being inadequate.
  • They are larger than regular direct-drive motors and, as a result, are more powerful and less prone to burning out.

• Friction-drive ceiling fans. This short-lived type of ceiling fan was attempted by companies such as Emerson and NuTone in the late 1970s with little success. Its advantage was its tremendously low power consumption, but the fans were unreliable and very noisy, in addition to being grievously underpowered. Friction-drive ceiling fans employ a low-torque motor that is mounted transversely in relation to the flywheel. A rubber wheel mounted on the end of the motor's shaft drove a hub (via contact friction, hence the name) which, in turn, drove the flywheel. It was a system based on the fact that a low-torque motor spinning quickly can drive a large, heavy device at a slow speed without great energy consumption (see Gear ratio).

• Gear-drive ceiling fans. These were similar to (and even less common than) the friction drive models; however, instead of a rubber wheel on the motor shaft using friction to turn the flywheel, a gear on the end of the motor shaft meshed with gear teeth formed into the flywheel, thus rotating it.

• Belt-driven ceiling fans. As stated earlier in this article, the first ceiling fans used a water-powered system of belts to turn the blades of fan units (which consisted of nothing more than blades mounted on a flywheel). For period-themed decor, a few companies (notably Fanimation) have created reproduction belt-drive fan systems. The reproduction systems feature an electric motor as the driving force, in place of the water-powered motor.
• Punkah style ceiling fans. These fans are based on the earliest form of a fan, which was originally cut from a palmyra leaf. A punkah fan moves slowly in a pendular manner with a rather large blade and is nowadays electrically powered. In comparison to a rotating fan it creates a gentle breeze rather than an airflow.